Route profile
JAX→IAH
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Jacksonville to Houston, 817 miles.
Right now
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Route reliability
July 2023 – July 2026
Better than 79% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 2,253 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
JAX → IAH arrives on time 87.2% of the time; the return trip, IAH → JAX, arrives on time 74.5% of the time, a 12.6-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
JAX → IAH spends 22.7 minutes on the ground on an 817-mile trip: 13.7 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at JAX and 8.9 minutes from touchdown to gate at IAH.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
This route has stayed remarkably steady year over year, a smaller swing than 93% of 5,368 comparable routes.
87.7% on time over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), against 87.3% in the 12 months before (2024-08 to 2025-07), virtually unchanged.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Ranked against every other route with the same kind of figure and at least 5,368 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where JAX to IAH differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
JAX to IAH is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 5 PM: 78.8% arrive on time, 11.5 points ahead of the 67.3% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 9 points.
JAX to IAH holds up on Mondays better than routes of similar length do: 87.3% on time to their 77.0%, a 10.3 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 10.1 points.
August is kinder to JAX to IAH than to routes of similar length: 95.2% on time against 75.4%, 19.8 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 18.7 points.
United Airlines does better on JAX to IAH than on its routes of similar length: 87.5% on time here, 79.4% there, 8.1 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 7.6 points.
JAX to IAH against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 5 PM departures | 78.8% | routes of similar length | 67.3% | +11.5 pts | 330 here, 133,116 there |
| Weekday: Monday | 87.3% | routes of similar length | 77.0% | +10.3 pts | 323 here, 339,185 there |
| Month: August | 95.2% | routes of similar length | 75.4% | +19.8 pts | 124 here, 187,072 there |
| Airline: United Airlines | 87.5% | routes of similar length | 79.4% | +8.1 pts | 2,116 here, 399,452 there |
Each comparison pools the flights of other routes, with this route’s own left out. Similar length means within 15% of this route’s 817 miles, with at least 5 such routes. A bucket is set against the most comparable group that has enough flights: similar length, then the same origin (at least 3 routes), then all other routes. Hours, weekdays and months appear only where both sides have 120 completed flights, and airlines where both have 600. The gap must be at least 2 points and 2 standard errors, and only the largest gap each way is kept per measure. These are differences in the flights counted, not causes.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
23 min late
against a median of 11 min early
Percentiles over 2,253 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at IAH after arriving from JAX.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 25% | High risk |
| 45 min | 13% | Some risk |
| 60 min | 8.1% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 5.0% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.8% | Low risk |
This is one leg of a connection. Gate changes and the next flight's own schedule matter too. And a connection can fail before delay is even the question — this route cancels 1.24% of the time and diverts 0.18% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 2,221 arrivals on this route that landed later than the connection time less 30 minutes to reach the next gate.
The worst tenth of arrivals on this route land at least 23 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 2,253 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
JAX → IAH flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 92.0% of the time, against 76.4% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 15.6 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 6 AM: too few flights to score
- 7 AM: 91.3% on time from 1,001 flights
- 8 AM to 10 AM: too few flights to score
- 11 AM: 88.3% on time from 476 flights
- 12 PM to 3 PM: too few flights to score
- 4 PM: 71.9% on time from 181 flights
- 5 PM: 78.8% on time from 338 flights
- 6 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why JAX → IAH runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for JAX → IAH. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on JAX → IAH, at 37.1%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 92.0% of the time and 3–6 PM departures 76.4%.
Airlines on this route
Carriers with at least 200 flights, by the airline that operated each one.
| Carrier | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Severe |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 2,145 | 87.5% | 1.17% | -11 min | 4.9% |
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| UA2453 United Airlines | 7:00 AM | 855 | 91.9% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 5.0 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 81.3%
- Feb: 88.2%
- Mar: 88.4%
- Apr: 86.7%
- May: 81.6%
- Jun: 84.0%
- Jul: 86.5%
- Aug: 95.2%
- Sep: 94.1%
- Oct: 89.5%
- Nov: 89.3%
- Dec: 85.5%
January is historically the weakest month and August the strongest, a spread of 13.9 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 87.7% against 87.3% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 2,253 JAX → IAH flight records from the US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, covering July 2023 – July 2026. Late means 15 or more minutes past scheduled arrival; cancelled and diverted flights are left out of on-time rates.
Full methodology · Data sources · Report a problem
Related research: How Long a Layover Needs to Be · Two Airlines on One Route · Best Time of Day to Fly From Major US Airports
Analysis last recomputed